You can disable UAC, however, by opening the Control Panel and selecting User Accounts. Select "turn user account on or off," and then uncheck the user account control box. You'll need to restart your computer for the change to take effect.
Lose background tasks
It makes sense to keep an eye on what's loading in the background every time you start up your computer - and to get rid of unnecessary background tasks.
You can get some idea of what's loading each time you boot up by glancing at the little icons that appear in your taskbar's system tray. Next to the clock in the taskbar will typically be several - sometimes many - little icons. Each one represents a background task.
There are a couple of steps you can take to get rid of background tasks you don't need. First, right-click any system tray icons to see whether there's a pop-up menu associated with each. Often you can find an option within that pop-up menu to disable the background task from starting again.
If that doesn't work, run the program MSCONFIG, which is supplied on all versions of Vista. Click the Start orb, and type "msconfig," without the quotation marks, and press Enter. Msconfig is a small applet that contains a Startup tab on which you'll find a list of everything that starts when your computer does. Inspect the list of items, and deselect anything that you know you don't need.
Use Ready-Boost
Ready-Boost is a Vista-only technology that allows you to give more memory to the operating system simply by plugging in a Ready- Boost compatible flash drive into a USB 2.0 port on your PC. You'll find Ready Boost capable flash drives at most computer retailers these days, and the prices are reasonable - generally US$20 to US$50 dollars.
Users report mixed results with Ready Boost, but the best performance gains seem to be attained by using a 2GB flash drive. Any time you insert a compatible flash drive into the USB port of a Vista computer, the operating system will recognize it instantly and ask you whether you wish to use the memory to "speed up Windows."
Upgrade your system
If you can, give Vista the hardware that it needs to supply the best performance. That means at least 2GB of system RAM, and 7200rpm hard drive with plenty of free space, a dedicated graphics card with at least 128MB of RAM, and a recent-vintage processor. Even a machine with these specs, however, will benefit from the performance tips provided above.
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